Silver Meteor

The Silver Meteor is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York-Penn Station in New York City and Miami Central Station in Miami, Florida. In 1939 the first diesel powered engine running NYC-Philadelphia-Washington D.C-Richmond-Fayetteville-Charleston-Savannah-Jacksonville-Orlando-Miami was introduced by Seaboard Air Lines Railroad. Seaboard's concept for the train was to provide 'modern day comforts'. While the advertised 24 hours was a long time in a seat Seaboard did provide many things.

The Silver Meteor's first trip to Miami wasn't from Penn Station or Grand Central Station but from Flushing, NY in Queens at the 1939 NY fair.

In the 1960's the train was given two branches. At Daytona Beach one branch of train headed south to Miami and another train headed southwest through Orlando and Tampa and then terminated in Sarasota.

In 1970 the train lost it's route to Sarasota and operated on a solid route to Miami. From 1971-1973 the Silver Meteor bypassed Jacksonville, FL and was extended north to Boston, MA.

However, in 1979 the train to Sarasota was returned until 1988 with an extension down the Western Florida coast to Fort Myers. The train numbers were 87 towards Fort Myers and 97 towards Miami and 88 from Fort Myers-New York City and train 98 from Miami-New York City. Trains 88 and 87 were dropped. However Amtrak still uses trains 97 and 98.

The Silver Meteor travels 1,391 miles(2,238 kilometers) between New York City and Miami. The train leaves New York-Penn Station at 3:15 P.M and travels south to Philadelphia making small stops in New Jersey and reaches Philadelphia by 4:30 P.M. Then it travels 143 miles south to Washington D.C. Then it runs south into Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA from where it crosses the border into Florida and stops in Jacksonville where after it continues southwest into Orlando and then heads for Miami.